Vampire
Vampires are a supernatural species and the primary species in The Vampire Diaries. Every vampire today has been descended from a family known as The Originals. History The origin of the undead race began with the Original Family, after a powerful witch named Esther transformed her family into vampires. Born during the middle ages of Europe, at some during their life, Esther and her husband, Mikael, fleed their homeland, soon after a severe virus, known as the plague, spread throughout their village. Soon after her arrival in Mystic Falls, Esther and her family lived in peace with the natives, until the death of Esther’s youngest son, Henrick. After being convinced by her husband to perform a spell that would transform them into the first known vampires, Esther proceeded to do so. Food Blood is the main component of a vampire's diet. All vampires need to drink some kind of blood. Whether it is human or animal is up to the vampire. They can also survive off of vampire blood, as Mikael a vampire has been depriving himself of the blood of humans and animals, for a long time and seemed to be just fine. If a vampire does not drink blood for a considerable amount of time, their heart will try to pump blood through their veins, but once there`s none left, they will decompose into mummification. It is a very painful experience. Vampire Powers and Abilities Some of these powers are more potent when the vampire gets older and feeds on human blood. *'Super Strength' - Vampires are much stronger than humans and grow stronger with time. Even new vampires who are still in transition can toss a fully grown human across a room with great speed and force. Their strength is also more powerful then werewolves that are not in wolf form. *'Super Speed' - Vampires can accelerate their movements to cover short distances in an instant, faster than the human eye can see. When running across long distances, they appear as vibrating blurs of motion. *'Emotional Control' - The supernatural ability to control and manipulate the emotions of one's self. *'Heightened Senses:' - They can hear whispered conversations, even ones in far off buildings, smell blood, and see in total darkness. *'Mind Compulsion' - Vampires have the ability to control minds, plague people's dreams, and alter/erase human memories. *'Immortality' - A vampire stops aging once turned. Upon their transformation, vampires then on become immune to all conventional illness, disease, virus and infection. The only known disease or infection that can kill a vampire is a werewolf bite. *'Healing Factor' - Vampires can snap their finger bones back into place after being broken and have been seen to fully recover from gunshots, stab wounds, and torso impalement. *'Angry': When a vampire is furious, it is possible to increase all their powers and abilities for a short period of time, as well as can have an advantage over an older vampire. Vampire Weaknesses *'Decapitation:' - The act of dismembering or removing the head of a vampire will result in death. *'Fire or Sunlight:' - Any exposure to fire or sunlight will result in death to a vampire. *'Heart Extraction:' - The act of removing a vampire's heart will result in death. *'Vervain:' - When ingested, vervain causes a vampire to become severely weak and feverish. Also, If a vampire's skin is exposed to vervain, it can result in burning them. *'Werewolf Bite:' The bite of a werewolf is extremely lethal to normal vampires. *'Magic:' - Witches are able to give supernatural aneurysms that cause the blood vessels of vampires to explode. *'Wood:' - If a vampire is wounded by wood it will cause the vampire to become severely weak and if a vampire takes a wooden stake through its heart it will result in death. *'Uninvited Invitation:' - Vampires cannot enter a house without being invited in. If they are in the house without being invited in they will become disoriented. Physical and Psychological Traits The emotions of vampires are far more intense than the emotions of humans. Anger, depression, happiness, love, sadness, etc. are more powerful and much more overwhelming than when they were human. Whenever a vampire is faced with a powerful feeling, such as hunger, their faces transform into a paler complexion, while blood rushes to their eyes with small veins protruding around the area. Their canine teeth will lengthen into fangs, giving them a more predatory look to scare off or threaten their prey. Vampires enjoy stalking and toying with their victims before biting and drinking their blood. Stefan explains that the hunt is often more enjoyable to vampires than the actual feeding. Vampires are excellent predators as they can hunt their victims while remaining unseen. Vampires can suppress their bloodlust to a degree by consuming alcohol. Vampires are said to be able to turn off their ability to feel emotions such as guilt if they find what they feel too overwhelming, Damon and Stefan have done this along with a few other vampires, Rose, however, claims that the switch doesn't exist or at least not for older vampires. Due to the fact that Both Damon and Stefan were moral people as humans and the fact being that being a vampire doesn't automatically turn one evil, there has to be a switch or else said vampires would be crippled with guilt after their first kills. Yet again, a vampire's bloodlust can be so strong that it overwrites their morality as is the case of rippers.The emotion switch is proven by Klaus as he compels Stefan to turn it off and he later shown to be cold and emotionless. Vampire Transition In order for a human to become a vampire, they must die within 24 hours after consuming vampire blood. The nature of the human's death is irrelevant, however the body and vital organs (head, heart, spine, etc) must be preserved and able to function upon resurrection. Upon mortal death, the undead body will awaken in a state of transition. In order to complete the transition, within the next 24 hours, the vampire must consume an exceptional amount of human blood, or else they will die. Age Trivia * In the books, Klaus, Katherine von Swartzschild, Stefan Salvatore, Damon Salvatore and Elena Gilbert were the only vampires. * In the books vampires possessed a number of abilities that were never shown in the show. One of which is shape shifting into certain animals. *The only way to kill an Original is with a dagger dipped in white oak ash that dates back to the beginning of the Original. The dagger can only be handled by humans in order to kill to an Original, if any demon attempts to kill an Original with the dagger, it will kill both the demon and the Original. *Klaus says that long ago he and Elijah were in love with someone but something went wrong and now Klaus considers love as the worst weakness of Originals. Elijah was in love with Katerina but never admitted, Stefan and Damon are in love with Elena, Anna fell in love with Jeremy, Rosemary felt affection for Trevor and considered family, Rebekah falls in love with Stefan, but Klaus does not accept and she is neutralized. See also * List of Vampires - a complete list of all vampires that have appeared in the series. References Category:Vampires Category:Vampire Diaries Characters Category:Supernatural Category:Secret-Keepers